In various processes, the separation of liquids, particularly condensates, that form drops in a flowing fluid is of decisive importance. Sometimes, the condensate is of particular interest for further processing treatment, but usually the aim of separation is to free the flowing fluid of liquid constituents that could adversely affect the subsequent process steps. For example, compression of a fluid laden with condensate in the form of liquid drops often entails unacceptably great wear or even unavoidable damage to the compressor. A frequent application for liquid separators is that of following cooling of a flowing fluid, for example in the case of intermediate cooling between two compression stages of a compression process. For separating condensate, drop separators of the vane type, the functioning direction of which is vertical to the direction of flow, are often used in the prior art. The most frequent form of application here is that of a flow through these separators perpendicular to the acceleration due to gravity and an outflow of the separating medium or the liquid through separating elements driven by the acceleration due to gravity.
Such arrangements take up considerable space and, in particular, prevent a compact integral type of construction, for example with a compressor or other processing devices with which the separators are in connection. The separate installation of the separators additionally has the consequence that the topology of the installation is adapted to the local conditions and the individual processing devices, in particular the separator, are connected to the following processing devices by means of simple pipework that has not been optimized in terms of flow, since this would be too complex for the respective individual case. A combined configuration of a separator with the adjacent processing devices would be very conducive to modularity. However, the previously inflexible use of separators as a result of the often box-shaped formation of these units prevents an integrated form of construction. The lack of flexibility is attributable in particular to the type of installation of conventional separators that is described above.